Click to view full size

Two farm­ers are ex­pect­ed to ap­pear in court fol­low­ing a con­fronta­tion with a con­trac­tor over ac­cess to agri­cul­tur­al lands in Ste Madeleine on Mon­day.

Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the site off the M2 Ring Road, where of­fi­cers of the South­ern Di­vi­sion hand­cuffed the men af­ter they blocked a dump truck and a pick-up from pro­ceed­ing. Pri­or to their ar­rest, farm­ers Garette Greenidge and Nigel Bowen in­di­cat­ed they be­longed to an agri­cul­tur­al group that had cul­ti­vat­ed the land for near­ly 20 years, but claimed the con­trac­tor had been en­croach­ing on their plan­ta­tion. He claimed the con­trac­tor stat­ed they had re­ceived a li­cence to oc­cu­py 20 acres of land three months be­fore the gen­er­al elec­tion, which in­cludes the cul­ti­vat­ed area. Greenidge and oth­ers are now call­ing for a for­mal in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

The farm­ers showed a cut chain that pre­vi­ous­ly se­cured the plan­ta­tion, claim­ing it was the fourth time some­one had tam­pered with the bar­ri­er. Greenidge said they had spent ap­prox­i­mate­ly $6,000 in ma­te­ri­als to re­pair the dam­age.